Wendy McGrath
Wendy McGrath is a Canadian poet and novelist Life McGrath was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.Wendy McGrath, NeWest Press. Web, May 25, 2013. McGrath's poetry has been published in CV2, Prism international, NeWest Review, Tessera, Room of One's Own, Orbis, and Grain, and broadcast on CBC Radio, Her non-fiction has been published locally and nationally. McGrath collaborated with students from Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts in Edmonton, Alberta, to create a film adaptation of her novel Recurring Fictions. The film is a series of short stories combined into an experimental film named after the book. Recurring Fictions is the 3rd in a series entitled "Celebrate Alberta" in which genres collaborate and complement each other to create films that support Alberta and its literature. In 2015 McGrath published her poetry collection A Revision of Forward (NeWest Press), the culmination of a decade-long poetry/print collaboration with printmaker Walter Jule (who also contributed cover art for McGrath's 2000 book common place ecstasies). A Revision of Forward launched at Edmonton's SNAP Gallery in October, 2015. Natalie Olsen received an Honourable Mention Alcuin Society Award for Excellence in Book Design for her design work on the book, which incorporated image fragments from Jule's prints. In spring 2017, McGrath released the EP "BOX" with the group Quarto & Sound — made up of Edmonton musicians Sascha Liebrand, Yana Loo, and writer McGrath. "BOX" is an adaptation of McGrath's eponymous "mirror poem" — a genre-blurring collaboration of poetry, jazz, spoken word, instrumental experimental music, and voice. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta. Writing Her work exhibits elements of experimental fiction, including stream of consciousness techniques, and both narrative and chronological shifts. Her debut collection of poetry, Common Place Ecstasies, published by Vancouver's Beach Holme Publishing (2000), explores themes of place, home, and childhood. A long poem, "Preserving," which is included in this collection, was also published in chapbook form by Rubicon Press (February 2011). "Preserving" uses found portions of text extracted from a home canning pamphlet as a springboard for poetic narrative that tells the multi-generational story of prairie women. As noted on the Rubicon Press website: "McGrath's grandmother gave her that brochure and it was a palimpsest of sorts, with notes on the recipes and unexpected doodles penciled in. Publications like that brochure, as well as cookbooks, seemed to be in the background of her grandmothers' and her mother's lives when she was growing up. But, when she encountered these texts as an adult, their meaning became quite different." Her debut novel, Recurring Fictions (University of Alberta Press, 2002), follows the childhood of a nameless female character in her search for a definable home. The plot structure of this novel is non-linear, with shifts in narrative viewpoint and time. The opening line of the novel, "Johnny Cash played the harmonica imitating the sound of trains" hints at a recurring motif. The novel's often poetic style is multi-layered, with spaces in the text and on pages providing literal and figurative openings for the reader to enter the world of the narrator(s). Short fragments of the text are also repeated at the bottom of some of the pages. Recognition In 1998 McGrath received the James Patrick Folinsbee Prize from the University of Alberta's department of English.Wendy McGrath, Dundurn Press. Web, Apr. 7, 2019. Recurring Fictions was awarded the 2003 Alberta Books Award for best design.Recurring Fictions, University of Alberta Press. Web, May 25, 2013. Santa Rosa, the 1st book in her Santa Rosa trilogy, was nominated for the 2012 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize. The 2nd novel in the series, North East (NeWest Press 2014), was nominated for the Georges Bugnet Prize for Fiction. Publications Poetry * Go Van Gogh (chapbook). privately published.Common Place Ecstacies (Paperback), Amazon.ca. Web, May 25, 2013. *''Common Place Ecstacies: Poems''. Vancouver: Beach Holme, 2000. * Preserving. Rubicon Press, 2011.Lainna Lane Brat, The Olive at the Almanac presents: Wendy McGrath, Olive Reading Series in Edmonton. Web, Apr. 7, 2019. *''A Revision of Forward''. Edmonton, AB: NeWest Press, 2015. Novels *''Recurring Fictions.'' Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 2002. *''Santa Rosa: A novel''. Edmonton, AB: NeWest Press, 2011. *''North East: A novel''. Edmonton, AB: NeWest Press, 2014. *''Broke City''. Edmonton, AB: NeWest Press, 2019. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Wendy McGrath, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 7, 2019. See also *List of Canadian poets References External links ;Poems *"A Revision of Forward" at Canadian Poetries (7 poems) ;Books *Wendy McGrath at Amazon.ca ;About *Wendy McGrath at NeWest Press *Wendy's Home Page at the University of Alberta *"Wendy McGrth is writing her way into our hearts," MacEwen Alumni Newsletter, Fall 2002 (.PDF) *[http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=2806 review of Recurring Fictions] at Quill & Quire Category:Canadian novelists Category:Canadian poets Category:People from Edmonton Category:Canadian women writers Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:21st-century poets Category:21st-century women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets